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A one-two punch knocks out biofilms

Nature Biotechnology volume 32, page 142 (2014)Cite this article

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Biofilm formation, a tactic used by some bacterial pathogens to evade drug treatment and the human immune response, is a growing threat to human health. Now, Conlon et al.1 describe a novel strategy to destroy biofilm-associated Staphylococcus aureus, a pathogen that can cause a range of severe diseases. They report in Nature that two antibiotics, when used together, eliminate S. aureus growing in biofilms, kill methicillin-resistant S. aureus (MRSA) and eradicate a deep-seated S. aureus infection in mice.

The two antibiotics are acyldepsipeptide 4 (ADEP4) and rifampicin. ADEP4 had been shown to kill replicating S. aureus2 but it had not been tested against so-called bacterial persisters, phenotypic variants that tend to grow in biofilms. Because commonly used antibiotics target processes essential to bacterial replication, they are often ineffective against metabolically inactive persisters.

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References

  1. Conlon, B.P. et al. Nature 503, 365–370 (2013).

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  2. Brötz-Oesterhelt, H. et al. Nat. Med. 11, 1082–1087 (2005).

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  1. Locum Assistant Editor,

    Irene Jarchum

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  1. Irene Jarchum
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Jarchum, I. A one-two punch knocks out biofilms. Nat Biotechnol 32, 142 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1038/nbt.2813

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